In this age of convenience, business leaders and consumers worldwide are looking for fast, easy and money-saving ways to manage their funds. Why leave the comfort of your home or office when your finances are just a click of a button away? Technology is the key that has unlocked the online banking market and is steadily pushing eBanking to new heights.

Checkbooks are fast becoming rare, ancient artifacts. Instead of using snail-mail to pay bills by check, more and more Americans are finding it’s quicker to make their payments online. And at the same time, they can check balances and manage their money on a daily basis, something that wasn’t always an option before.

Online banking is the future of money management. But banks agree it is not just about offering transactional, cash management, and bill payment services online. Clients are savvy, demanding the latest and greatest up-to-date products, services and resources. “It’s no longer just ‘come to our website,’” says Jan Ohtani, Bank of Hawaii vice president and manager of internet channel management. “It’s the combination of online tools, web casting, e-mail, mobile banking. They’re all coming together.”

Both locally and globally, banks are focused on accessing customer base outside of branch areas, out of state and out of country. Internet and remote access to online accounts makes that possible. Last year, Central Pacific Bank (CPB) experienced a 45% increase in online banking enrollments and as CPB’s senior vice president and manager Wayne Kirihara says, “the competition will be more in the product itself and the way we deliver technology.”

Every day more and more customers are getting connected. A 2008 study by analyst house Gartner, one of the world’s leading information technology research and advisory companies, found that online banking is now a mainstream access method for customers. The survey of 2000 adults found that 33% of U.S. customers, or the equivalent of 71 million people, regularly use online banking services.

Interestingly enough, Gartner found the rise in online banking has not led to a decline in visits to the branch or branch-based services. Instead it has resulted in the greater use of other services such as ATMs and telephone banking. Ohtani agrees. “People are using multiple channels,” she says. “The branch is still very, very important. The online channels are very important. People still like to use the phone. There might be a preference to use one channel over the other for daily stuff, but they use a combination of channels.” Researchers have found that there is one catch. Usage levels for online banking are up, however “…only if (consumers) see intrinsic value from the new technology,” says David Schehr, research director for Gartner’s financial services research team.

Gartner also found younger customers and high-income earners are most likely to bank online. The analyst house says this mass acceptance of online banking shows that banks need to start treating the Internet as a multi-dimensional delivery channel where banks can differentiate themselves and provide better communication with customers.

New banks don’t just pop up every day. Two years ago, Pacific Rim Bank (PRB) became one of only five state-chartered banks in the islands - the others are Ohana Pacific Bank, First Hawaiian Bank, Bank of Hawaii and Central Pacific Bank.

PRB opened the doors to its one branch on Restaurant Row in March 2006. With limited competition in the local banking market and the success of such Internet startup banks as ING Direct and HSBC Direct, PRB embraced the idea of combining branch banking with online banking. “One of the core principals of the bank is to give 10% of pre-tax profits back to the community and reinvest,” says Pacific Rim Bank senior vice president Michael Sasaki. “That is the whole reason why we are a state-charted bank instead of a nationally-chartered bank. That is to ground ourselves within the State of Hawaii.”

PRB has made eBanking its signature feature. “There is a shift towards people not really wanting to come into the branch but trying to maximize their time and to bank remotely,” says Sasaki. ”What we are trying to do is offer more of the business services so, as a business, you don’t have to come down into the bank for anything.”

Through its 24/7 Business Banking Suite, PRB offers customers an array of online services: bill pay, fund transfer between accounts, electronic check deposits, online money market, checking and savings accounts, and automatic sweeps from business checking to working capital lines of credit. “Businesses can run their deposits in the middle of the night, instead of having to be constrained by business hours,” says Sasaki. “We have our eCheck scanner as well as our External Bank Transfers for online banking. With the two of those, pretty much, you don’t actually have to ever come into the bank.”

Both Bank of Hawaii and Central Pacific Bank offer many of the same features, and this past summer both banking institutions began offering customers the ability to open checking and savings accounts directly online.

Consumers and businesses alike are not only demanding banking without the commute - they want any and all information and tools to help manage their funds. BOH is experimenting with online tools, such as webcasting and podcasting, and has partnered with

Oceanic Time Warner Cable to offer a series of free webcasts on such topics as reverse mortgages. “People can ask questions prior, and when the webcast is being presented they can chat,” says Ohtani. Other resources include providing daily news updates on stock market trends, investor relations, and the economy. There are even plans for BOH’s chief economist, Paul Brewbaker, who is known for his economics reports, to offer regularly scheduled podcasts.

As online banking matures, the way technology delivers banking information is changing as well. Developments in mobile banking and its impact on the financial services industry are happening continually. Banking organizations such as Citigroup Inc. are testing person-to-person money transfer systems and other mobile banking applications with limited rollouts. This year, Wisconson-based Wausau Financial Systems Inc. is testing a mobile-phone payment system called ‘mobile lockbox.’ When a bill comes due, the customer receives a text message with the amount and the option to pay immediately. All you have to do is text message your reply.

Central Pacific Bank is still developing its mobile banking options and Kirihara says standardization is key. “It’s a great tool to have, it’s a great convenience for the customer, but it’s not as universally practical in terms of functionality,” he says. He sees the industry evolving its mobile banking focus to mobile payments. “The phone will actually get rid of the check register. After you make the purchase, and with a quick speed dial button, you can access your bank and they’ll send you a text message to tell you what your balance is.”

BOH is already using text messaging, “because some information customers want to be notified about immediately. They want to be told this is an official debit card transaction,” says Ohtani. Mass acceptance and use of mobile banking is still a ways off because banks and mobile operators such as AT&T still do not see eye-to-eye on how to best collaborate on the technology and the fees.

As the Gartner study found, banks must keep customers informed. Communication is critical. Financial service providers are now leveraging all online banking services, including e-mail, mobile banking, text messaging, and resources such as webcasting and podcasting, to serve their clients and strengthen relations. Ohtani adds the challenge is “determining which channel to use for the different market segment as well as the type of content; going back to the customer and saying what is your preference. It may come down to the customer saying ‘I want it all.’” If that is the challenge, technology will be a vital part of the solution.